Strong faith guides Sparta parishioner to share story with others

‘GIFT OF SUF­FERING' ﻿ Richard Fritzky of Stan­hope recently wrote a book, “A Pilgrim’s Song,” about his faithful aunt, Mary Varick, who led groups of severely disabled people on pil­grimages to the great Catholic shrines of the Quebec province. Fritzky, who assisted on many of those pilgrim­ages, now finds himself severely disabled — a quadruple amputee after a fierce battle with Neisseria Meningitis. Yet he is filled with the strong belief that God has blessed him with the “gift of suffering.”

﻿Quadruple amputee is ‘instrument of grace and redemptive force’

Photo & Story by MICHAEL WOJCIK, News Editor

STANHOPERichard Fritzky never thought that one day he would end up on the other side of the hospital gurney, facing death, suffering unbearable pain and ultimately learning to live with a host of debilitating disabilities — including the amputation of all four of his limbs.

Fritzky still remembers when he was 14 and he was the one pushing stretchers and wheelchairs. At that time, his “saintly” aunt, Mary Varick, enlisted him to join her “Simons and Veronicas,” who cared for a group of severely disabled people on pilgrimage to the great Catholic shrines of Quebec, Canada. For Fritzky, now 65, there would be many more such pilgrimages to religious sites in Canada, New England, New York, and New Jersey.

Five decades later, Fritzky finds himself navigating what many people might consider a cruel fate. Now, he is the one, confined to a wheelchair, after fighting a fierce battle with Neisseria Meningitis — acute inflammation of the protective membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord — that left him a quadruple amputee. This long journey started in 2006 and inevitably led Fritzky to deal with 36 major surgeries, end-stage renal disease, colon cancer, bouts with death and excruciating pain.

Yet, he is filled with a joy that most people could never understand and with a strong belief that God has blessed him with the “gift of suffering.”

“The recovery has been long and agonizing. But I was never mad at God. I was in a coma for four months and my brain should have been fried and my heart should have given out. At times, I had a 107-degree fever and my heart raced like a marathon runner in the 26th mile,” said Fritzky, who recently authored a book about his aunt. “A Pilgrim’s Song: Mary Varick and Her Theology of Suffering” pays tribute to his faith-filled aunt, who insisted that God’s greatest gifts included pain, denial, suffering and sacrifice.

“I feel blessed,” he said. “Neisseria Meningitis kills 90 percent of its victims. Out of all this suffering, madness and darkness, I am improbably still here. The prayers of many and the grace of God alone saw me through.”

In fact, Fritzky — who shared his experiences at a retreat/reflection at St. Jude Parish, Budd Lake, May 2 — looks back on assisting with his aunt’s pilgrimages as “on-the-job training.”

“Those pilgrimages prepared me for the life I live now,” said Fritzky, who remembers the many pilgrimages of deep faith and love that he made. He recalled Jeanette, a blind woman, who was confined to a stretcher and only able to move her head. “She was the most powerful woman on Earth, since Joan of Arc. She would say, ‘I still have such great work to do.’ Jeanette would listen each hour for the bells of Holy Rosary Church in Jersey City to peal and pray for specific things, such a vocations or a neighbor who was sick,” he said.

Jeanette’s prayerful example — along with the wise words of a quadriplegic friend — inspired Fritzky to let go of those feelings of powerlessness and to give into an even stronger sense of mission that fills his life with great joy and purpose.

“I realized that I could become an instrument of grace and a redemptive force myself, doing my part to take on the sufferings of the world and especially of those, who are suffering and asking, ‘Why the hell is this happening to me?’ ” said Fritzky of Stan­hope, who is a parishioner at St. Kateri Tekak­witha, Sparta, and draws strength from his Catholic faith.

Fritzky said that he also draws strength from the faith and love of Varick who taught him about grace in suffering. She was blessed with a loving husband and four children, when bone cancer threatened her life — a ravaging disease that was miraculously cured during a visit to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre on July 21, 1951. For the remaining 37 years of her life, Varick “went on the relentless sojourn of an unabashed pilgrim, determined to bring others, especially her disabled, to ‘God’s inner circle,’ ” Fritzky said.

“Aunt Mary made all these suffering people feel better. She told them that they had time to pray because of their gift of disability. She said that they had the precious opportunity to help Jesus carry the Cross for redemption’s sake,” said Fritzky. She also established several ministries, such as the Our Lady of Fatima First Saturday Club, which brings disabled people together for Mass, the rosary and a meal. “Mary also brought them together for companionship, joy and hope and to share in the great grace and goodness of God.”

Fritzky — a father of 12 and grandfather of 12 — fondly remembers feeding, washing, bathing and talking to the pilgrims. Leading the pilgrimages was Varick, who had befriended Mother Teresa and had two brothers who were priests of the Arch­diocese of Newark: Fathers Francis and John Cassidy.

These pilgrimages prepared Fritzky for his own severe illnesses and disabilities, which included amputation of portions of both legs and most of the fingers on both hands. He also suffered with painful bedsores, a kidney transplant that was followed by a pulmonary embolism and other challenges. Soon, he will undergo surgery — his 37th — for a double hernia, Fritzky said.

Today, all of these seemingly debilitating disabilities have not slowed down Fritzky, who spins around on the main level of his house in his special wheelchair. He has written several books — including “What Must Needs Come: a Legacy of Gettysburg.” now in production — and he teaches three online courses at Fairleigh Dickinson University, typing away on his computer with the nub of one of his fingers. He calls “A Pilgrim’s Song” a “labor of love” and expressed hope that the book could “breathe new life” into Our Lady of Fatima First Saturday Club and the annual pilgrimage.

One of the retreatants at St. Jude’s was Mike Sabella, the parish’s evangelization coordinator, who called Fritzky’s presentation “a powerful witness.”

“It’s an incredible story. Rich should have died,” Sabella said. “Even with everything he went through, he is positive and happy. He demonstrates a level of gratitude to God that most other people never do. Rich feels that he is blessed to be able to bring this message to other people,” he said.